


Nova and Adrien talk about their alter-ego

by dragons_SRSunn



Category: Renegades - Marissa Meyer
Genre: Awkward Conversations, DmC - Freeform, Secret Identity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:48:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,577
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25001914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragons_SRSunn/pseuds/dragons_SRSunn
Summary: If Supernova was somehow an alternate dimension, and they shared their secrets.
Relationships: Nova Artino | Nightmare/Adrian Everhart | Sketch
Comments: 3
Kudos: 16





	Nova and Adrien talk about their alter-ego

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this before I finished Supernova.  
> This is for anyone who either didn't finish or get up to the third book.

The rooftop was cold, but Nova didn't feel it, her side tucked against Adrien's. Adrien. Being so close to him simultaneously made her shiver and put her on edge. Below them, Gatlin City stretched in a tapestry of lights and rooftops and streetlamps. Somewhere in the distance, Nova thought she could see the water, glinting with amber lights, but it could as well have been an empty parking lot at the tip of the horizon.  
"So," she said, voice softer than she'd intended. "What did you want to tell me?"  
She felt Adrien laugh, barely hearing it in the wind. "Well. . ." It was obvious he was uncomfortable.  
Nova tensed. Was this a trap? Had she been discovered, had Nightmare been discovered? She began to assess the escape routes, eyes flicking to the roof's edge, then the inky sky.  
"Great skies, Nova, calm down," Adrien said, cutting off her mounting anxiety.  
She only half obliged.  
"Don't worry, it's not so major," he coughed. "I mean, okay, it's a little-" he coughed again.  
"Quit stalling," Nova said, voice teasing.  
He pulled away from her, turning his face to look her directly in the eye. "Okay, but we're both going to say our news at the same time."  
"Wait!" Nova cried. "First, um, first," she had nothing to say, nothing to stall with. "We both. . .we both have to promise," she blurted.  
Adrien nodded.  
"We, um," Nova felt her face turn hot. "We have to promise that we won't, um," That you won't get me arrested and ended up neutralized. That you won't tell Captain Chromium. That you won't turn on me, or let Dana say 'told you so'. "Not to tell," she finished, somewhat lamely.  
Adrien nodded again, gaze serious. "Okay. I promise... I promise not to tell anyone."  
She repeated after him, and they both took in a simultaneous breath.  
"I'm Nightmare." "I'm the Sentinel." The words crushed together, blurted at the same moment.  
Nova stared, her body going cold, her mind going blank. The what? He was being cruel, making fun of her statement with a ludicrous one himself. Disbelief spanned the air between them. Nova began to finally feel the wind buffeting the rooftop, it's chilly finger flicking her hair over her face.  
Finally, she scoffed. "No you're not."  
He just watched her, expression a canvas of disbelief, horror, fear. "Nova?" he tried.  
"Are you?" she persisted, mind going to the amount of times she'd seen the cumbersome Sentinel, striking his stupid poses. Her heart raced. Had Adrien ever been with her when the Sentinel had showed up? No, no, and no.  
"Nova?" Adrien seemed to be going through the same thought process as her, and, a little too late, Nova began to realize what he now knew.  
She scrambled to her feet, but Adrien caught her hand, pulling her gently back down. His eyes were huge, her heart was racing but she didn't move. There seemed to be an invisible string connecting their eyes, and Nova found she couldn't break the contact. He was lying, a part of her mind cried, while another, more insistent part shouted at her to run, that he would turn her in, that she had just given up her most valuable secret. And for what? For a boy, her friend, who himself had kept this from her? Adrien.... no. Adrien Everhart couldn't be the Sentatil, he couldn't.  
"Sweet rot," she muttered.  
"Yeah," Adrien said, his voice shaky.  
"Are you for real?" Nova asked.  
"Yup. You?"  
"Uh-hu."  
"Sweet rot." The phrase, coming from Adrien's mouth made her laugh, which made him cast his disbelieving gaze onto her. "Wow, Nova, you are one heck of a secret-keeper. You should give me some tips on how you kept that so well hidden." Then he seemed to shake himself, and this, time, he was the one to scramble up. "Wait, what?! You're Nightmare? Great skies, Nova, you can't be, you just-" His eyes were like one of Dana's butterflies, flickering in ever direction. "You're a wanted villain, you killed my mother, you, you," he seemed to be at a loss, his words draining until they ended in a stare.  
She stood, too, anger, shock, fear, and, uncontrollable laughter teeming beneath her skin. "Okay, Mr. Oh So Noble and Honest and Keeping No Secrets From Me Everhart,"  
He flinched, eyes flickering as he seemed to remember his spilled secret.  
"My turn. You're a jerk! I mean, how could you even keep that from me, you wanted to find me, you act like you stepped out of a poorly written comic, for all the stars! And now you want me to start apologizing to you? You, the Sentinel? Tell, me Adrien Everhart, are you the Sentinel or Adrien?" She laughed then, the sound sweet and loud. Then she was crying. Nova had nobody to tell. Nova was alone with Adrien- the Sentinel - could tell his _Dad_ _s_ all while keeping his own secret. He could - he _would_ \- tell any of his renegade friends and she would be over. Ten years and the first person she trusted would be the end of her. Figured.  
Nova sat, trembling all over, certain that at any moment, Thunderbird or Captain Chromium would swoop from the air toward her, or maybe she was more afraid of her own family. The Anarchists. Who would never betray her secret like she'd just done. Adrien sat beside her, shaking as well. She inched closer, in only to be next to something solid on this windy rooftop.  
"I'm sorry," Nova whispered.  
"Me too."  
Nova pulled in a breath, like she could erase the tears wet on her cheeks. She hated them, the betrayed, shocked, relieved and terrified tears. She hated that Adrien could see them.  
"Why?" Adrien said, his voice somewhere between sharp and quiet. "Why did you do everything," his voice cracked."You did."  
She didn't answer for a long while, and when she did, her voice was wet. "The Anarchists are my family. They came for me when the renegades didn't."  
Adrien flinched.  
"But I would never hurt..." She trailed off, memories of the parade coming back to her. She'd tried to kill Captain Chromium, Adrien's adopted dad. "I'm sorry. I did some terrible things, but I didn't do them without reason."  
The silence dragged.  
"What about you? Was the Sentatil some eccentric outlet for your hidden ego?" She squinted at him when no Renegade appeared out of the dark sky. "Are you secretly unhealthilyobsessed with yourself?"

He laughed, and the sound was true, if still shaky. "Not really."  
"People like you, you know. The Sentinel, I mean." Her expression soured. "I still don't, by the way." She turned to face him, catching his hurt gaze. "I mean, if you were going to have a secret identity, the Sentinel, I mean, really? Your tagline is practically 'look, at me, I'm a superhero novel hero and I'm here to save a damsel.' It was a little annoying, to be honest. I would have done something more," She stopped.  
"Something more, 'don't look at me because if you will, I'm totally going to sleep your face off, also, by the way, I hate everyone and I'm super mysterious and evil'." Adrien said dryly. "Wait," he said suddenly. "Did you really live in that funhouse?"  
"No!" Nova said, smiling in spite of herself. "I lived in the subway tunnels, where do you think?"  
"But the nightmare..."  
"It was a fake. Oh my god, do your dads know?" She turned red at the question, imagining Adrien telling Captain Chromium the secret. "They probably freaked."  
"Uh, actually..."  
"You didn't?" she asked loudly.  
"Not really."  
"Sweet rot, can you tell them with me there? I so want to see that!"  
He glared at her. "If they knew, I would be grounded for life, probably even longer.  
She giggled.  
"I keep on thinking what would happen if someone would find me out, like-"  
"Frostbite," Nova interrupted. "She's the worst."  
"I know, right!?" Adrien nodded vigorously. "She totally killed that villain, Hawthorn, and framed me!"  
"Same here, with Max!" Nova said, the memory of the frustration she'd felt filling her face. "I wanted to punch her so bad!"  
"Yeah, it was almost worth giving up my alter ego to tell everyone the truth!"  
"Right?!"  
Nova laughed, and Adrien joined her a second later. "Well what do you do when you think you're going to be found out?"  
"Believe it or not," Adrien said, "My armor is so hot,"  
"Its nerdy," Nova said.  
"Not that kind of hot," Adrien replied, shooting her a smiling glare. "I mean imagine wearing a bodysuit out of armor. I literally had to take a shower from the sweat when I was finished. I mean, every time someone almost found me out, I sweated like a pig."  
Nova frowned. "Oh my god, I know what you mean. Like I had to be sure to brush my teeth really well before I wore my mask, otherwise I was literally smelling my breath the whole time."  
"Your breath doesn't smell bad," Adrien protested.  
She laughed, leaning against him. "Come to think of it, I don't know why I was surprised. "You are obviously the maksed, mysterious, ridiculous superhero that's dominated the media."  
"Yeah, and you're definitely the evil, creepy girl who puts people to sleep with your power. Why did I not realize that before?"  
She smiled, glad they the truth hadn't torn them apart.

Then, the renegades came.


End file.
